Let’s hear it for cinnapineapanana!

That would be cinnamon + pineapple + banana, all wrapped up in a tender, rich yeast dough. Topped with crunchy sugar, and baked to golden perfection.

This delightful bread was created by Ricardo Neves Gonzalez, a Brazilian bakery owner and regular contributor to the comments section of this blog. Way back at Christmas, Ricardo sent me photographs of an unusual-looking bread, which he called Jewish Strudel.

Ricardo explained that he makes challah dough, then tops it with different sweet fillings; the photo he sent looked like banana and cinnamon, though I seem to recall he also mentioned mango, as well…

It appeared from the photo that he rolled out the dough, and simply gave it a 3-fold like a letter, with different fillings in the two layers of the fold. He then baked the loaf in an oversized baguette-type pan – like a baguette pan designed for wider, fatter Italian bread.

Rich, golden, eggy challah dough. Tropical fruits nestled inside. And the whole bathed in cinnamon – why had I never thought of filling yeast bread with bananas and cinnamon? I’m on this.

And I was – almost immediately. The challah dough was easy. And tropical fruits? Well, bananas are a must. But I felt uneasy putting anything too juicy within the folds of this rich dough, imagining a lovely golden exterior, but a soggy mess in the center.

OK, DRIED tropical fruit.

Dried pineapple and banana? Perfect. Dried mango would have been awesome, too. Or coconut, now that I think of it. But cinnamon and pineapple and banana were speaking to me that day, and thus a star was born –

And – if you don’t have Baker’s Cinnamon Filling and want to make this loaf RIGHT NOW, go ahead and use plain cinnamon-sugar. Mix it with some melted butter, if you like, to make it spreadable. It won’t be as cinnamon-y, or as sticky/rich, but it’ll work OK.

Pat and roll the dough into a rectangle about 18” x 14”.

Looking at the dough horizontally (so it’s 18” wide), spread half the filling down the center third of the dough.

Slice two bananas into about 12 rounds each. Space the slices atop the filling.

Fold one of the end pieces into the center to cover the bananas and filling.

Spread the remaining filling atop the piece of dough you’ve just folded into the center.

If you don’t have dried pineapple, use another dried fruit; golden raisins would be fine. So would dried coconut flakes. You don’t want to use any juicy fresh fruit, e.g., berries, apples, peaches, etc.; they’d make the loaf soggy.

Fold the other side of the dough over the filling to cover it.

Pull the long side seam underneath, and tuck each end underneath, too. You should have a long, flat log with no filling showing.

Use a sharp knife or a pair of scissors to cut 4 diagonal slashes atop the loaf, going deep enough to cut through both layers of dough: top, and middle.

This will allow steam to escape.

Brush the loaf with the reserved egg white, which you’ve whisked with a fork to make spreadable.

Cover the loaf gently with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow it to rest for 1 hour. It won’t rise much, if at all.

Towards the end of the resting period, preheat the oven to 375°F.

Bake the loaf in the middle of the oven for 25 minutes. Tent with foil, and bake for an additional 20 to 25 minutes, till it’s golden brown and a sharp knife poked into the center doesn’t reveal any raw dough.

Remove the loaf from the oven, and set it on a rack to cool.

Notice the Demerara sugar at the top, the white down below. I think the white looks more striking, in this case.

Lovely. See how those dried pineapple bits softened up in the cinnamon filling?

Since the loaf didn’t seem to change any during its 1-hour rise prior to baking, I thought I’d do a test to see if it really made any difference.

Here’s the loaf I let rise. Notice the two distinct layers of dough with filling in between. (I happened to cut at one of the slash marks, which is why the top of the loaf appears open.)

Here’s the loaf I didn’t let rise. Although the outer edges of the dough were fine, in the center it simply became a thin, wet, gummy layer. So don’t skip the rise before baking, OK?

PJ Hamel was born in Wisconsin, grew up in New England, and graduated from Brown University. She was a journalist in Massachusetts and Maine before joining the King Arthur Flour Company in 1990, where she's been ever since. Author or co-author of three King Arthur ...

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Oh my goodness, this looks amazing! Ricardo, you are a baking genius! (So are all of you at KAF!) My kids will adore this bread, seeing as a lot of their favorite sweet flavors are there. And I even have everything on hand. Have you tried it with any whole grain in it?

This looks really interesting. I’ll have to give this a try sometime soon, as I have just purchased two bags of the cinnamon filling! Also, if you use an egg slicer, you know the type with the wires, it makes for great even slices of bananas (you just have to chunk up the banana to fit). Love this blog, it is addicting!!

A South American bakery in the neighborhood that has, unfortunately, gone out of business used to make a similar bread. Their pineapple filling was particularly yummy, but they also made them with a pumpkin filling that I really liked — kind of a pumpkin pie bread!

This is one of the few blogs where I actually love to read the comments. The baking community is so helpful and positive, and it is really fun to read the international posts – it’s so interesting to learn about baking habits all over the world. Ricardo in particular is always a delight. Thanks to him and to KAF for spreading the joy of baking. I can’t wait to make this bread. It really is nice to hear comments from our customers and other bloggers. It is great to know we can sometimes make a difference in people’s lives! Thank you. Elisabeth @ KAF

I can’t wait to make this! Can’t wait to bite into it! One question, how do you get it from the mat to the parchment paper/baking sheet? Also, looks like you use fresh bananas, not dried. Seems like fresh would work OK.

To move the folded strudel, you need to cradle it with both hand and carefully transfer it to the parchment. Frank @ KAF.

Will make it this weekend, as I make it a point to have something special for Sat and Sun breakfast. Thanks for sharing. Glad you mentioned dried pineapple. I was going to use canned pineapple but you’re right, a soggy dough is for the doggy.
Do the dried pineapples soften after baking?

The pineapple does not “soften”, but it does get “chewy”. Frank @ KAF.

Last week I made a multigrain and multiflour bread in my bread machine. I have successfully made this bread before. This time I used local honey which had not been processed in any way. During the first rise, the dough became slack and sticky. I added more flour so the dough cleared the sides and let the machine proceed. During the second rise the dough again became slack. My question is: Do the enzymes in unprocessed honey cause the gluten to relax?

It sounds like there may be a few things going on . Please give us call on the hotline for assistance: 800-827-6836. Frank @ KAF.

I am going to try this today. I recently made your lemon braid bread and it was fantastic. A real keeper. I have been using KAF for fifty years and wouldn’t use anything else. Was the lemon bread from Mr. Ricardo? Sounds close to the same. Will let you know how it turns out. Ciao

Ciao, Joanie – thanks for being such a long-time KA user! No, the lemon bread is a variation on our “mock braid” recipe, which has been in the KAF archives for decades and decades… Hope your turns out swell. PJH

I want to give a BIG kudos to the staff at KAF! I’ve rarely seen a comment area where the company actually responds to customers comments/suggestions! Just placed my first order and I’m sure there will be many more!

This sound a lot like the lemon braid bread you posted about a month ago. That one was a real hit. It made two terrific loaves, one for us, and another for our daughter and family. I like the way you promote your products (the hard sell for the cinnamon filling) but also give us the opportunity to use products at hand. Very fair of you to do this. I do have the cinnamon filling and will use it this weekend when I always provide a treat for my bed and breakfast guests.

I´m really happy when i see this post and all the coments above. One of the best things KAF´s staff promote is the opportunity to all of us customers, interested in baking breads, to be in tune, with the blog banter´s help, one with each others!! Fantastic!!
My Jewish Strudel have a history, a particular interesting history: Last year, during a great German´s settlers local festival in Petrópolis, my city, we call BAUERNFEST, i was baking this bread in my small bakery inside quarters of Festival. I was baking and selling this breads to people who were visiting the Festival. Amazing smell of fresh delicious banana, cinnamon spreading the air…then, many of the visitors asked me if that bread was a Strudel, typical among Germanics. I told them it wasn´t exactly a Strudel, but then i tought to myself…Why couldn´t name that fantastic bread Jewish Strudel. It was made with Jewish Challah dough but folded in a typical Strudel shape!!! Then, from that time, i call ever this bread a Jewish Strudel and it´s my contribution, a cultural contribution to put together something of Germanic and Jewish …a Bread for Peace!!!

Well i folded my bread exactly like P.J. done, but never slashed the top like she did, but it looks wonderful, with that fruit views inside this amazing bread! Another great variations of fillings are permited. Why do not try to fill with Strawberry jam and fresh sliced Strawberries?? Why not Fig jam with dried Figs??? Why not Apricot jam with dried Apricots?? Your imagination is the key here! I love to add golden raisins and chopped walnuts inside…i ever do it!!
And finally, try to taste this bread just when it comes out of the oven, with an amount of fresh heavy cream, pré-cooled on refrigerator. It´s for me one of best sweet breads i ever tasted.
Thanks a lot from all of readers and customer´s coments and specially P.J. Hamel who promoted all of this nice experience between all of us. I´ll feel so glad if her attitude to publish eventually some recipes we send to KAF, encourage others to do the same!!

Ricardo, thanks so much for the back story behind this bread – fascinating! And I look forward to trying some of your suggestions. Personally, fig jam and toasted walnuts sounds out of this world to me… especially with a touch of mild cheese, perhaps? Or even a few crumbles of blue cheese? I’m so glad you’ve found this blog, and become such an important part of this community – you offer us a taste of a different culture, and I’m very grateful. And now, too, I’ll always think of this as a “Bread for Peace.” Peace to you, Ricardo – may your bakery flourish and your life be filled with happiness. PJH

Reading this blog is one of my favorite ways to relax. This post is especially heart-warming. May it help all of us to remember what a small world this truly is, how similar people really are the world over: perhaps all we really need to be content is some good bread (made with KA flour of course! Thanks to Ricardo and PJ for connecting and promoting world peace!

Whoa, this sounds delightful–thank you Ricardo for sharing and PJ for such great pictures and encouragement! I tried over the weekend to create a cinnamon muffin that would knock your socks off but well…sure didn’t do it in satisfying the cinnamon crave I’ve had since I ate the last cinnamon scone from the recent scone post–shoot I should have just made those…I used cinnamon flav-r-bites, a blob of cinnamon filling in the middle of each muffin and cinnamon/sugar on top but alas, the muffin just wasn’t right and thus didn’t help the crave…but now–yippee, a tried and true cinnamon filled yummy concoction–let me at it!!!

This sounds incredible and looks even better. I can’t wait to give it a try. My family and I love fruit flavors and I know if I do a good job with this, it will become a favorite. Thanks to Ricardo and PJ for bringing this beautiful strudel into my kitchen!!

My family always anxiously awaits the new treats we try out on Saturday mornings. Sounds like this one (I even have all the ingredients!!!) and the lemon braid will hit the table soon. Thanks for the inspiration.

This looks great, and I’ll try it very soon. As I was looking through the beautiful pics, more than once I mistook the cinnamon filling for Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread, what with it’s rich, dark color. However, I think that Nutella might taste really delicious in there too! Would that introduce any texture problems? I hope not!

Nutella should be totally awesome, Michelle – give it a go, and report back, OK? Good luck – PJH

OK, so I have this new iPod Touch (trust me this is relevant!:D), so, of course, I have to take it with me everywhere to see who has free WiFi. Who woulda thunk they had WiFi in the organic grocery store! So, naturally, this blog happens to be the first thing to pop up. Screech, grocery cart U-turn… I have to make an immediate beeline to the aisle for bananas… and pineapple… and coconut…hmmm, there’re the mangoes, should try it with them too…oh, can’t forget the nuts…maybe cook down the last of the dried apples from last fall to make a dry jam filling. Y’all are wrecking my grocery budget… and well work the cost when that cinnamon-y aroma starts drifting through the house!

Times can be tough, Margy – and it takes a tough baker to resist the temptation of cinnamon, doesn’t it? (Though who’d want to resist…) Sorry about your budget, but your taste buds will thank us! PJH

I make a lot of KA recipes as treats for work. Having to be there at 5:30 in the morning, I typically make sweet breads or cinnamon rolls the night before, put them in the refrigerator for the last (slow) rise, and then bake them in the morning. Would this bread work with the last rise in the refrigerator (without the sugar topping)? Thanks for all the wonderful recipes over the years (my co-workers are especially greatful)!I think it would rise in the refrigerator over night. I might let it rise partially after you had shaped it, before you put it in the refrig, as it would probably need maybe a couple of hours to warm and finish rising, before you baked it, otherwise.Have fun with it. I bet you are very popular at work! Mary@KAF

Made it yesterday, along with cinnamon bread and the classic white bread. The sweet bread turned out great(so did the cinnamon and white bread.) I cut the banana length wise to get a better coverage and sprinkled a little sugar on top. I also put a little mist on the pineapple. The sweet bread is already 3/4 gone.

I made this recipe last night. Wow. Not only was it a blast to make, but it turned out beautifully and my husband couldn’t keep his hands off it while it was cooling on the counter. The only thing I had trouble with was the bake time; my loaf cooked for about 15 minutes less than the recipe’s cook time, and it burned on the bottom (but cooked great in the middle). I suspect there should have been some parchment paper between the loaf and the pan… Otherwise, great recipe! And so yummy!!

I made this yesterday, and oh WOW. Yummy! I do have a few suggestions, though. I didn’t have enough white flour, so I ended up having to substitute white whole wheat flour for 10 oz of the white flour. It STILL came out yummy! I also recommend using over-ripe bananas. I had fresh just-yellow bananas on hand, and while they tasted good, they didn’t get all smooshy. I think if I had to do it over with the same bananas I’d slice them much thinner (1/8″) and put way more of them on.

The Baker’s Cinnamon Filling is on my shopping list from KAF, but since I didn’t have any on-hand I used a combination of white sugar, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon. Yum!

Two questions, though. The loaf browned REALLY quickly — could that be from the white whole wheat flour, or is that just the nature of a rich bread? Also, how do you keep the filling from oozing out all over the place? I thought I had made the seal really well but I had a lot of leakage. Glad you liked the recipe. The white whole wheat wouldn’t make it brown faster. That is just a trait of a rich dough. Try covering with foil for the last few minutes to keep it from getting it too brown. The Baker’s cinnamon filling has some food starch in it which helps keep the filling from oozing out. Mary@ KAF

Would this bread fit into the “hearth pan” that KA used to sell? My rye breads have had a lovely shape and height since I started using those pans. We haven’t tried it in that pan, but it should fit as it is a 2 pound loaf. Have fun with it. Mary@KAF

I made the bread last night and my family was crazy about it. It was about 8″wide and a good 14″ LONG. the flavor was unbelievable. What I did was use dried pineapple, mango and papaya together. I will be making this on the holidays and for special people. almost all gone and will try other flavors. I liked Ricardo’s idea of fig with dried fig and strawberry jam. Keep up the good work guys. Ciao

I made this yesterday and it was amazing! I have never made anything like this before and it was much easier than I imagined it would be. I used raisins in place of the pineapple because my family doesn’t like pineapple and cinnamon sugar and butter in place of the cinnamon filling and it was still really good. Mine baked very quickly and burnt quite a bit on the bottom, so next time I will watch it closely and do a better job with the foil, but I’m definitely excited about trying this one again and experimenting with different fillings. Thanks for the recipe!

I just made this bread and was most pleased with it. I did find that the cooking time given was a bit too long (at least for my oven), although it was still moist and tasty. I used the tinfoil tent for the last 20 minutes as indicated, but the bottom did get a bit crusty. Maybe I’ll double pan it for the next time. This is definitely a keeper, and will go into my “tried and true” recipes.

I tried this recipe almost exactly but changed a few things. The first round of fillings I left as is. The second layer I didn’t have dried pineapple but did have a large can of unsweetened crushed pineaple in which I drained it to almost dry (like you do for spinach). Extracted about 12 oz. of juice. Spread it out after the cinnamon filling and added a couple of handfuls of chopped macadamia nuts.

After folding and brushing with egg white, I sprinkled the coarse sparkling sugar but added a tad of large flaked coconut. When I took the bread out of the oven, I let it cool a bit and sliced a section about the middle of the loaf. The fillings didn’t get soggy but the taste was just great. The family loved the combination of flavorings.

Hello PJ,
Well, I finally got around to making Ricardo’s strudel and it was a sweet victory, thanks to your detailed instructions. You can read about it in my blog at http://www.sotsil.wordpress.com
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I will be making it again and again. The strudel was humongous, and it did rise after I proofed it for 2 hours 15 minutes. I should have made 2 strudles instead of 1 giant one. Delightful taste.

WOW, that did make a buxom bread, didn’t it? Glad you liked it, Sharon – thanks for sharing your blogpost with us. PJH